Effects of ocean acidification and warming on the development and biochemical responses of juvenile shrimp Palaemon elegans (Rathke, 1837)

Funding : This work was supported by FCT through the strategic project UIDB/0492/2020 granted to MARE and by the Integrated Programme of SR&TD “Smart Valorization of Endogenous Marine Biological Resources Under a Changing Climate” (Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000018), cofunded by Centro (2020) programme, Portugal 2020, European Union through the European Regional Development Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Acknowledgements : Financial support by FCT through the strategic project UIDB/MAR/04292/2019, the Postdoctoral grants attributed to SC Marques (SFRH/BPD/110400/2015), and the Integrated Programme of SR&TD “Smart Valorization of Endogenous Marine Biological Resources Under a Changing Climate” (Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000018), co-funded by Centro 2020 program, Portugal 2020, European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund. Sam Dupont is grateful for the support provided to the IAEA Marine Laboratories by the government of the Principality of Monaco

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have led to the warming and acidification of the oceans. Although, there is a growing of evidence showing that simultaneous occurrence of ocean acidification and ocean warming are threats to marine organisms, information on their combined effect on coastal shrimp species remains scarce. The purpose of this study was to estimate the combined effects of seawater acidification and warming on growth-related traits and biochemical responses of P. elegans juveniles. In this work, shrimp were exposed for 65 days at 4 experimental conditions: pH 8.10 * 18 ◦C, pH 7.80 * 18 ◦C, pH 8.10 * 22 ◦C, pH 7.80 * 22 ◦C. The results showed that low pH decreases the lipid content by ~13% (p < 0.05). Higher temperature reduced the condition factor by ~11%, the protein content by ~20%, the PUFA by ~8,6% and shortened moulting events by 5 days (p > 0.05) while the SFA increased ~9.4%. The decrease in condition factor and protein was however more prominent in organisms exposed to the combination of pH and temperature with a decrease of ~13% and ~21%, respectively. Furthermore, essential fatty acids as EPA and DHA also decreased by ~20% and ~6.6% in low pH and higher temperature condition. Despite this study suggest that warming may have a greater impact than acidification, it has been shown that their combined effect can exacerbate these impacts with consequences for the shrimp’s body size and biochemical profile.

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